Wristband
by Nikkel
Summary: ...Carly spotted quite the peculiar sweatband hugging her friend’s wrist. It was entirely rainbow colored, with stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, radiating and bright for all the world to see... Oneshot.


**Wristband**  
_By Nikkel  
_(c) to Nickelodeon

* * *

Carly Shay was one of the girls you would describe as talented. Most work came easy to her – math, science, history, english – she excelled in all categories, scoring straight A's each report card. However, there was a time, where once in every blue moon, that Carly leaned back in her seat, staring at the test paper and essay question in front of her, completely stumped.

Poetry was not at all her strong point. They were to analyze the context and features of the poem – specifically, _The Layers_, by Stanley Kunitz – and despite her knowledge of metaphors and diction and sentence structure, nothing about the poem really stuck out. She didn't see the purpose of it or why it needed to be analyzed. It was a poem about a guy walking alone through life. What more was there to it? No magical words sprung to life or pulled Carly into a fictional world. They were just words to be analyzed, but what was to be analyzed about them she couldn't understand.

Her best friend, Sam Puckett, on the other hand, was an absolute _queen_ of the topic. Carly just "happened" to glance over at Sam, who was sitting in the desk next to her, furiously scribbling away in almost illegible handwriting about the minute details of the poem. How was it that Sam, who consistently struggled in the bulk of her classes, was able to pour such soul into an essay that Carly could hardly even _begin_ to understand?

Carly watched Sam for about as long as it had taken Sam to finish one page of her essay. She flipped the piece of loose-leaf paper over and swung her golden curls over her shoulder, revealing a hard, determined face and skilled writing hand. Beyond her eyes straying over Sam's blue plaid shirt, Carly spotted quite the peculiar sweatband hugging her friend's wrist. It was entirely rainbow colored – stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet were radiating and bright for all the world to see.

And like those colors, something sparked in Carly's mind that sent little flags up everywhere in her brain. There was only one kind of people that wore such flamboyant colors.

As if there was a steel tether on the side of her head, Carly quickly averted her gaze to her blank paper. Now was not the time to be questioning. . . _that_. She had to focus on the poem.

But she didn't get much of anywhere. She was just as clueless as she had been before, and was now distracted by the rainbow sweatband Sam wore. Carly's lips burned with questions – _Is she gay? When did she decide this? Maybe she's bi? What if she doesn't know what the rainbow colors mean? It is Sam. . ._

The questions continued to thwart Carly all throughout the period. She jotted something down about the poem, no longer caring about the grade or the fact that she would probably fail the test. All she could think about was Sam, and what Sam was wearing. She had to talk to her the moment class was over. And she couldn't let Freddy see – God, what would he think if he saw that? Would he even know? What if he already knew? Does Sam's mother know? What if she doesn't accept her?

Or worse. Carly wasn't sure if she could have the same friendship with Sam ever again. What if. . . What if Sam had a crush on her?

Or. . . What if Sam. . . was in love with her?

The bell rang, and Carly hurriedly shoved her belongings into her bag and tossed her essay onto the teacher's desk. Sam was just walking up to the teacher's desk when Carly snatched her by the wrist (purposefully on the wristband, hiding it completely), looked in square in the eyes and said, "Come on. We need to talk."

"Um. . . Can I at least turn this in?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow and holding up her essay. Carly grabbed it and set it on the desk for her. Sam shrugged. "Uh, yeah, sure. I guess."

Still holding her by the wrist, Carly dragged Sam out into the hallway. Freddy was waiting, smiling and ready to walk their usual way to seventh period, but Carly looked pointedly at him and said, "Bathroom."

They swiftly turned the corner before Freddy could reply or follow, and ducked into the girls' bathroom. There were a couple of girls in there touching up their hair and make-up, and it was a rarity for _anyone _to use the stalls. But Carly ushered Sam into one, in which she followed, and quickly locked the door behind them.

"Um, Carls, is this really necessary?" Sam asked. Carly opened the door and peeked out, seeing which girls were there and which weren't, suspicious.

Carly closed the door and faced her. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut; Here she was, in a locked bathroom stall with her best friend, who was quite possibly a lesbian, meaning that _anything_ could happen. . .

"I'm sorry," Carly finally said, exhaling. "I guess I overreacted."

Sam's eyebrows furrowed. "About what?"

Carly swallowed, pointed at the rainbow wristband, and said, "_That_. And that you're. . ."

The color drained from Sam's face, blankly washing away. But soon the color returned, red and ashamed, and she looked down to her toes. She slipped the rainbow wristband off her arm and played at it with both hands.

"No! Please, it's not that I. . ." Carly was at a loss for words, despite the train running through her head. She placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. Sam looked up, brown eyes brimmed with tears. There were only a few times Carly had ever seen Sam cry, and she did not want to be the cause of this one.

"You hate me, don't you?" Sam said, quickly looking away and wiping her eyes before the tears fell. "I'm not surprised. I've wanted to tell you before, but I guess I'm a wimp for never saying it."

"Sam, I could never hate you," Carly replied, hand still on her shoulder. "It's just that. . . I don't know, I guess I never saw it coming, that's all."

Sam blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah," Carly replied with a smile. "I mean, I always thought you and Freddy. . . you know. . ."

Sam shook her head. "Nah. Freddy's great, but. . . I don't know."

"So. . . when did you figure out you were. . .?"

"I've just always kinda known. . . I never really wanted to say anything about it, that's all." Sam picked at the fuzz on the rainbow wristband. "And now I do."

"Well, that's great," Carly grinned. Despite the shock she had felt earlier, simply talking to Sam about the situation cleared all paranoid thoughts from her head. She wasn't quite sure how that had worked, but suddenly she felt. . . well, _okay_ that Sam was gay. In fact, she herself felt pretty proud that Sam had the strength to say all of this to her. . . even if she had guessed it.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You really think so?"

"I know so."

And with that, Carly unlocked the door. Before they left the bathroom, however, Sam touched her hand, causing Carly to stop and turn around. Carly's heart skipped a beat, for suddenly she was quite close to Sam, and for a moment, with that look in Sam's eye, she thought she was going to kiss her. But instead, Sam leaned forward and embraced her, hugging her tightly.

"Thank you, Carly. You're the best friend I could ever have," Sam whispered.

Carly hugged her back. "You're welcome."

They then left the bathroom. Surprisingly enough, Freddy had been waiting outside, obviously sensing that something had been wrong. With Carly by her side, Sam stepped up to him and said,

"Freddy, there's something I need to tell you. . ."

* * *

**Author's Note: **My first iCarly fic. While I'm not an avid worshippper of the show, I've always wanted to write something for it. I think this works, don't you?


End file.
